Welcome HeliDood

WGA Friend Joined: 2009-12-07 Posts: 51

I ran and raced R/C cars and trucks for years. I always wanted to get a heli but they scare the bajeebers out of me. They are flying blades of death if you don't know what you're doing. I've also spent hours watching people on youtube crash their big investments on the first run. Very cool hobby and I am in awe of you guys who can actually fly those things.

Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 3:41 pm

First we want to welcome you and thank you for serving our country.
It was nice meeting you on the trail a few weeks ago. Hope we can cross paths again, when ever we can get back to your area or you come to ours. Our time was limited there so we did not get to go after all the caches we wanted too.
TE

WGA Friend Joined: 2010-01-08 Posts: 275

spd2662 wrote:

I always wanted to get a heli but they scare the bajeebers out of me. They are flying blades of death if you don't know what you're doing.

I'm happy someone out there respects these machines, as they ARE dangerous. Even a "small heli", like a T-Rex 450, for example (you can see hundreds of them on youtube)...

The rotor on those things is about the same diameter as a push lawnmower, and spins roughly the same RPM, about 3500rpms.

My helicopter, the one on the picture, has a rotor diameter of around 5 feet.
With the larger diameter, they run a slower headspeed. That one turns around 1850 to 1900 RPM, but because of the heavier blades, its capable of so much more damage.

I know of at least 4 instances where people were killed by an R/C helicopter.
Without going into too much detail, I know of other incidents in recent years where people have lost fingers, their eye sight, and in one case, almost half his face. Some larger R/C helicopter caused partial decapitations.
They're "toys", but then again, they're really not.

Incidents happen when people are irresponsible, and sometimes incidents happen in the hands of a responsible person just because incidents DO happen. It's part of R/C. You could have a servo fail, your receiver lock out, your regulator could fail... could be any of a number of things that can 'just happen'

But with modern equipment, electronics have proven to be more & more reliable, especially with the 2.4ghz spread spectrum radios that are popular today that are resistant to glitching.

Usually, if something happens, its probably the fault of the operator, not doing a proper preflight check, or an error in his build such as forgetting to use loctite somewhere.

Then there are inexperienced pilots who try to fly outside their means and lose orientation, causing them to crash into a crowd of people...
It happens.
If there is someone at the field who I don't know, and he's flying a helicopter, and sometimes a big 3D giant scale airplane, I don't take my eyes off that thing. If he's losing control, I want to have enough time to get out of the way!

Posted: Fri Jan 15, 2010 5:03 pm

Wow! And I thought snowshoeing down a frozen river to try to open a frozen ammo box was dangerous. Remind me to duck when you have your "bird" around.

WGA Friend Joined: 2010-01-08 Posts: 275

They really are like flying lawnmowers.

Here's a nice video of a guy, Marcus Kim flying his pretty low to the ground. TOO low, in fact. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cKOvdAdt4d8
This was last August down in Muncie, IN for an event, the largest R/C event in the world. The best of the best from all over the world come here to play.
(This event takes precedence over the big geocaching event in WI held the same weekend, sorry)

That flight was cut a little short. Here's why:

Posted: Thu Feb 04, 2010 8:45 am

Welcome!!!